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Chapter Twenty-four
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2024-10-29 12:49:32Related chapters
Bitter Love Chapter Twenty Five
Chapter Twenty-fiveJacobGo fucking figure that the very first person I see when I step into the bar is Josie fucking Walker. She's sitting at a table on the completely opposite side of the room and yet our eyes still meet. I don't care if the annoyance is visible on my face.It's off-hours. I'm not her vet at the moment. “Dr. Harris!” a woman croons no sooner than the doors shut behind us. I take my eyes off Josie and see Lauren Wallace standing next to her sister, who takes her animals to the clinic to be treated. I only recently realized how much Lauren made Chloe’s life hell back when we were all in high school. Chloe has always felt like a sister to me and, now that she will soon be my sister-in-law, I feel all the more protective of her. “Hello,” I say flatly, side-eyeing Mason. He also shares the same protective nature over Chloe as I do. “And agent Harris,” Lauren adds, looking at Mason. “Come on, Lauren,” her sister says, giving her arm a
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Bitter Love Chapter Twenty Six
Chapter Twenty-sixJosie“Of course not,” I say through gritted teeth. I saw a random night out with Poppy going a million different ways, yet this is not an outcome I ever would’ve expected. Sitting here, watching Poppy shamelessly flirt with anyone is awkward enough, but it’s made ten times worse when said person is Jacob fucking Harris’s brother.And then let’s add the fact that Jacob is sitting right next to me. To be fair, he looks just as uncomfortable and annoyed with his brother as I do right now.Really, neither Poppy nor Mason are doing anything wrong. They’re both single and we’re at a bar on a Thursday night. That’s what normal adults do, right? I wouldn’t know. I haven’t attempted to date anyone since my last relationship ended in a restraining order. “You guys are welcome to stay,” I go on, trying to sound a little more convincing this time. “I feel bad eating in front of you, though.”“Don’t,” Mason tells me. “We were going to order food anyway.” “Great.” I force a sm
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Bitter Love Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-SevenJosieI jump, bumping into Jacob. He quickly opens the gate and ushers me inside, holding me close to him with one arm and swinging the gate closed with the other. The little picket fence that surrounds the house is only about three and a half feet tall and won’t keep any wild predators out. The chances of a wolf coming down from Northern Michigan are slim, but not zero. I go from worrying about myself to being convinced that the llamas are dead now— consumed and partially digested inside this thing’s stomach.The wolf catches up to us and lunges, his paws land on top of the fence, his tail wagging.Wait, what….?I let out the breath I was holding as I now realize it’s not a bloodthirsty wolf. It’s a dog, happily wagging his tail in greeting. It looks like the large stray dog from a few days ago.“Gunther!” Jacob exclaims. He’s still protectively holding me close to him, and it’s only then that I realize he put himself between me and the fence, going in the line
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Bitter Love Chapter Twenty Eight
Chapter Twenty-eightJacobMaybe Mason was right.It’s a jarring thought, one I don’t think I’ve ever had before. And it’s definitely not something I’ll admit to him. But I’m starting to think that he might have had a point back when we went to the bar not that long ago. I just wrapped up giving my second presentation at the Michigan Horse Fair, and my Q&A session had almost as many questions about my personal life as it did questions about equine medicine. “Dr. Harris!” an attractive redheaded woman calls, hurrying from her spot in the audience. She goes around the podium, stopping just feet before me. The panel is over and everyone else is filtering out to get to the next presentation, grab food, or walk around and shop.“Hi,” I say, remembering her from her rather crass question of how my wife handled my long hours. She smiled when I told her I didn’t have a wife, and I swear she’s undone a few of the buttons on her green plaid shirt. She’s attractive, probably just a year or so y
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Bitter Love Chapter Twenty Nine
Chapter Twenty-nineJosieHow could I have been so stupid?I freeze, eyes meeting Jacob’s. It's bad enough that Jacob thinks I'm incompetent, so much so that he has to tell his vet friends about it, but it's downright embarrassing to come face-to-face with all of them after just hearing Jacob’s story.I whirl around, wanting to walk in the opposite direction as fast as I can. But my arms are full of items I've bought today, and I move so fast that I drop a bucket full of rainbow polo wraps. I bend over to pick them up and end up dropping a sample of senior feed on the ground along with it. Jacob rushes forward to help me.“Josie. Hi. I…I wasn't expecting to see you here today.”“Obviously,” I snap and set down the saddle pad I had folded over my arm.“Listen,” he starts and picks up one of the polos that came unwrapped as it fell out of the bucket.“Save it.” I snatch the polo from his hands and shove it back in the bucket without wrapping it back up. “It's been clear from the start
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Bitter Love Chapter Thirty
Chapter ThirtyJacobI wake up Monday morning feeling just as exhausted as I was when I finally crashed into bed only five hours ago. I'm still drained from the weekend—Saturday felt like it was three days long instead of just one. Despite our best efforts, we were not able to save the mare. Putting down any animal is hard, and it's not something vets get used to. You just eventually learn to numb your emotions enough to survive. This mare was due to give birth in under a month, and her owner was an 11-year-old boy who stayed with her until the very end.Yesterday was another day filled with emergencies. It started with a horse who ran through a fence, getting big lacerations on her chest, and ended with another euthanasia of a cow who stepped over a low-hanging fence and got hit by a car. I’m emotionally drained and haven't yet decided if going to the clinic is going to be a good or bad thing.And, despite everything that’s happened since I left the horse fair on Saturday, I haven't
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Bitter Love Chapter Thirty One
Chapter Thirty-oneJosieI loudly cough into the phone, trying to cover up the sound of Thor whinnying to his buddies from inside the barn. I’m on a conference call with my boss and the head of the sales department. After my presentation to the university several weeks ago, the veterinary program signed on to use the medications I spoke about. Now, both Hilda and the head of sales, Jerry, are trying to convince me to come into the office this week so I can receive a promotion to sales.The money would be nice, I won’t lie, but even if I didn’t have the horses here, I would never want to be away from Everly for days at a time. If I took a job as a sales representative, I wouldn’t just go to local universities. I’ll be driving all over, walking into vet clinics and trying to convince them to buy our products.I end the call feeling a little uncomfortable, knowing that each year of experience as a data analyst for this company makes me more expensive in their eyes. I don’t expect to get
Last Updated : 2024-10-29Bitter Love Chapter Thirty Two
Chapter Thirty-twoJosie“Do you know anyone who has a BMW?” Louisa asks, peering through the living room window.“No,” I reply. “Wait, yes. Poppy?” I scrunch up my face in question. “Why would she—shit, it is her.” Curiously tipping my head to the side, I watch Poppy get out of her car, phone glued to her ear. I hear my own phone vibrating from the couch where I must have dropped it in my excitement to see my sister.I pause for a few seconds, turning from my phone to the door, but then decide to open the door since Poppy is quite literally standing on my porch.“Don’t you know how to answer your phone?” she demands as soon as the door is opened.“What?” I reply, still clueless as to what the fuck is going on.“You hung up on me, yelling for Everly because someone pulled down your driveway at night. I called you back to make sure you were alive, and you didn’t answer.”I blink once. Twice. “You…you came to check on me?”“I came to make sure you weren’t dead. I still want to buy that
Last Updated : 2024-10-29
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Bitter Love Epilogue
EpilogueJacobNew Year’s Eve…“Do you have it?” Rory asks, eyes wide.“I regret telling you anything,” I hiss, kicking her under the table.“You needed to tell me so I could help,” my sister counters and eyes Everly, who’s about to burst with excitement. “Do you have it?”“Yes,” I whisper-yell back. “I didn’t set this whole thing up only to forget the ring.” We’re at Josie’s house, and a glistening blanket of fresh snow fell overnight, giving me a perfect excuse to go on a trail ride through the woods.Where I’m going to propose to Josie.I’ve known she’s the only one for me since the moment I first kissed her and not long after that everything became clear to me. We tried taking things slow, figuring out our lives together, but being apart is painful and any night I lay down to go to sleep and Josie isn’t next to me fills me with a sense of emptiness.I love the nights when Josie, Everly, and I sit around the living room, playing a game or watching a movie together. And getting up a
Bitter Love Chapter Forty Five
Chapter Forty-fiveJosie“Am I doing it right?” I take a few quick steps forward, moving my hands above my head.“No.” Everly shakes her head. “That’s not even close. Watch and follow me.” She shows me the dance move again and I can’t for the life of me follow along. I’m not very coordinated when it comes to any sort of dancing.Everly and I both laugh when I trip and almost fall, catching myself at the last minute on the pasture fence. We’ve been out here for the last half-hour or so filming videos for social media. Phoenix Horse Rescue and Rehab is official now, though we’re still waiting for our tax exemption paperwork to come back from the IRS. Louisa helped me file everything before she left two weeks ago, and while I read online that some charities got their paperwork back within weeks, it’s most likely going to take at least three months before we see anything.“Just watch, by the end of summer. I’m going to be a TikTok dancing sensation.”Everly laughs a little too hard and th
Bitter Love Chapter Forty Four
Chapter Forty-fourJacob“Is everything okay with the horses?” Crystal walks swiftly back to the desk in the barn. “I saw Josie leave in a hurry and she looked like she was holding back tears. Did we get blood work back already and it wasn’t good news?”Fuck.I didn’t want to lie to her. I didn’t want to start something with anything less than total honesty. But now…now I think I ruined things before they had a chance to even blossom.Swallowing hard, I keep my face neutral. “Nothing has changed since this morning with the horses.”“Oh, good. That scared me. Did Josie just get emotional?”“Yeah. She got upset,” I say and I’m telling the truth. I need to focus on my job, but my mind is blanking. It takes me a few seconds to get my brain working again, forcing myself to think about anything but Josie. “Pongo can go for a walk and the thoroughbred can go in an outside run next to the gray mare. Put her out first and bring her in last. He was very buddy-sour at the auction and got upset w
Bitter Love Chatper Forty Three
Chapter Forty-threeJosie“Time for bed,” I tell Everly, plucking the TV remote from her hands. “It’s late and you should have showered and packed your backpack for the morning already.”Everly goes to protest but yawns instead. Both Louisa and I see it, so she knows there’s no point in arguing.“Can I borrow something from your closet?” Ev asks as she starts up the stairs. “I’ve worn everything I brought a million times already.”“You haven’t been in school for a million days,” I counter and turn my head as I sit on the couch. I’m exhausted and ready to crash into bed myself. “But yes, you can borrow something.”“Thanks, Mom.” Everly hurries up the stairs and I take a mini break on the couch. I lean back, letting my eyes fall shut. I can hear Louisa in the kitchen, struggling to get the cork out of a wine bottle. I only have an old-fashioned corkscrew here, not a fancy electronic one like she has at home.“Hey, Mom,” Everly calls from the top of the stairs.“Yeah?”“Why do you have D
Bitter Love Chapter Forty Two
Chapter Forty-twoJacobMy ringing phone stirs me from my sleep. Blinking my eyes open, I reach for it on my nightstand and then realize it’s not there, but in the pocket of my pants which I discarded on the floor. It hurts to pull myself away from Josie, who’s still sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, I practically fall out of bed to grab my pants, dragging them over so I can get my phone from the pocket. It’s an unknown number, and I send the call to voicemail. If it’s an emergency, they’ll be directed to a call center who will then, in turn, call me back. That number is one I do know, and I’ll answer.But it’s a holiday, for fuck’s sake. All I want to do is sleep next to Josie, feeling her small body against mine. The second before I flop back down, I look her over. She looks so fucking good in my bed. I want to wake up to this every damn morning. Her hair is messy, and she has pillow creases on one side of her face. Wanting to remember this moment, I scan my eyes over her again
Bitter Love Chapter Forty one
Chapter Forty-oneJosieI glance in the rearview mirror, gripping the steering wheel tightly. The roads are still wet from last night’s storm, and there are branches and leaves scattered on the pavement. But, despite my nerves, my hopes are soaring high right now.I’m on my way home with my first official personal rescues—and my new thoroughbred is related to my childhood dream horse. If that’s not fate, then I don’t know what is. I decided to name him Loki, continuing with Aunt Kim’s Norse God theme, and Everly wants to run an online contest for the rescue’s social media followers to name the gray mare.We’re taking them, along with the three ponies Jacob is hauling, right to the clinic. He already talked to Crystal, who set up stalls. They’ll stay there until we can be sure they’re healthy and not contagious; though, Jacob told me not to be surprised if the mare needs to stay longer. She’s in rough shape and lacks the light in her eyes Pongo has, looking like she’s completely given
Bitter Love Chapter Forty
Chapter FortyJacobA loud crack of thunder rattles the window, waking me up. Josie is still asleep in my arms, and it feels so fucking good to have her here with me like this. It’s more than just that…it feels so fucking right and I can’t explain it.The wind presses against the side of the motel, shaking the door. The worst of the storm was supposed to get here around midnight, and it seems like it’s right on schedule. We fell asleep with the bathroom light on, and it flicks off along with the rest of the power when another gust of wind blows. This time, Josie startles awake, sitting up a bit with a gasp.“It’s okay,” I tell her. “The power went out.”“Oh. Right. It’s storming.” Her voice is thick with sleep, and she lays back down, resting her head on my chest. I tighten my grip on her and she hooks one leg over mine. I kiss her forehead, listening to the storm. Josie slides one hand across my chest, running her fingers up and down my arm until she falls asleep again.I’m tired and
Bitter Love Chapter Thirty Nine
Chapter Thirty-nineJosieJacob holds my hands above my head, pinned against the door behind me. His lips press against mine and I stand there, too shocked to move, too stunned to react. In the back of my mind, a voice tells me to push him away, to tell him to stop.Because he still vexes me and I’m not done being mad at him yet.But my willpower is gone, resolve chipping and crumbling at our feet. Why would I want him to stop when it feels this good, and each fleeting second that passes by makes it harder to forget just what I was so angry about in the first place.My eyes fall shut and I part my lips, kissing him back. Jacob lets go of my wrists, sliding his hands down my arms as he moves his mouth from my lips to my neck. I gasp, feeling heat flood my veins and my heart pounds in my chest.“Josie,” he breathes, stepping in closer. His hands land on my waist and he grabs the hem of the scrub top in both fists, balling it up. “Tell me to stop and I will.” He brings his face back to m
Bitter Love Chapter Thirty eight
Chapter Thirty-eightJosieWell, shit.I step inside the room, wanting out of the rain. Jacob steps in right behind me, and we’re both thinking the same thing. Because there is only one full-size bed in this room, not two.“Maybe that’s a pull-out couch.” Jacob strides in, going right to the little sofa next to the bed. “Nope. You take the bed, I’ll take the couch.”Shivering, I take my coat off and hang it on the back of the door. My torso is dry, but the rest of me is soaking wet and I’m freezing. “I’m smaller. I can sleep on the couch.”“It’s fine,” Jacob presses. “I’ve spent many nights on hay bales using horse sheets as blankets.”“In comparison, the couch isn’t so bad.” I set my purse and the little bag of supplies I bought from the motel office down on the small table, and then lean over to unzip my boots. I stepped in a puddle on my way into the office and just one sock is soaked, which annoys me more than having them both being wet. “Do you mind if I turn the heat up?”“No, g
